Four men – young, strong, and handsome, violent, immature, and foolish, trapped inside the identities they were handed – set out on a pulsing course that leads them into uncharted waters. From the DJ decks, a fifth man lays the beat, and is also swayed by the pulse set by the other four.

Two beats in quick succession are all it takes to whip us up. And two slow beats are enough to bring us down. A dropping pulse signifies death and silence, emptiness and nothingness. A rising pulse means adrenaline, stress, action, life, love, fear, and dread. A bounce is a kind of pulse. A bounce is also a kind of pain that goes and comes back stronger, reminding you of the danger and spurring you into action – urging you to do something.

Beyond the stereotypes of male-dominated hip hop culture – which demands proof of your strength, dominance, and power – four men battle to find their own pulse, to be led into something deeper, more essential, more primal. Sometimes through humor and self-deprecation, other times through brutality, violence, and fear. A bounce will be the medicine for combatting their masculine hang-ups, their misogyny, their fears when it comes to anything different, to sex, to the Other. The performers take a stand against that masculine model that regards sexuality as a source of punishment, shame, and guilt, and violence as a way out of any confrontation, be it within his own self or with others. This prototype sadly resides, or has in the past resided inside the minds of many – and not just men.

Everything around us follows a pulse. We do too. Dancers and musicians create their own pulses, enter into them, and live inside them. They often take others in with them. And that’s when a pulse becomes collective, resonating with connotations given to it by those sharing in it. This is how a vibration you’ve created acquires meaning and leaves its mark – on the moment, and even on history itself. Ten handclaps can effectuate great change in space and time and stillness, in the bravery of the individual and the power of the many. The success of a pulse depends on how catchy it is, something determined by the moment, by its intensity and persistence, and by the need it has to be relayed. Which is to say, by its truth. And so its greatest significance – its absolute achievement – comes when it ceases to beat. At the moment when it stops. It is at this precise point that the reason for its initiation and its duration is made clear.

Presented with the support of Onassis Stegi’s “Outward Turn” Program.